Special Note: Nowadays, if you click on a photo, all the photos in the entry will come up and you can just go through them (enlarged & slideshow-style) and not bother with all the other gossipy/complainy tripe! :)
Note #2: This is a long entry - LOTS of photos - so better go get that coffee/snack now!
So before our truck came down with another flu, and on one of our few pretty days in Vancouver, we made tracks (or waves) for Victoria. We were shocked at the ~ $77 ferry fare, but whatcha gonna do? I had such great memories of our one trip there so many years ago - from the Olympic Peninsula. Butchart Gardens filled with rain, gorgeous flowers, and matching umbrellas. A cute town/marina with the pretty, ivy-covered landmark hotel. So we loaded up the dogs (since our outing would be too long for the pups to hold their bladders) and made our way to the Tsawwassen terminal, hoping the rather gloomy-looking morning would clear up as promised.
We paid the outrageous fee, waited in line for the usual hour or so, and boarded. Here we're just getting underway, looking back at the terminal.
Exploring the upper decks.
Touring between the islands.
Billy and neighboring traveler watch as we dock at Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island.
First stop: Butchart Gardens, an old (1880s/early 1900s) limestone quarry reclaimed by the owner's wife and transformed into an incredible, world-renown botanical paradise. And to our doggies' delight? They were welcome into the gardens too! Too cool!!
And now for the Longest Snout Competition...
(Mommy snapped the photo while Daddy was in the men's restroom - doggies eagerly awaiting his return)
Lucky dogs!
Bill and Friends in front of outrageous dahlia display.
Mommy gets to pose too.
Beautiful posies!
And another beauty...!
A neon blue salvia!
OK, I knew coming here without the aid of my real camera was going to be painful... I was so grateful to at least have my little point and shoot, but there was no way for it to do this place justice! Esp. in the sunken gardens, where the trees were going off with their fall colors.
Guess who???
Amazingly dog-friendly!
The quarry pond/fountain.
Somehow, a fancy place like this with so many pretty plants and green lawns, seems like the last spot where dogs would be welcomed,... But how wonderful for our pooches to be able to walk around instead of stay in the car! And they weren't the only dogs there either. Hopefully everyone else is as reverent of this place as we - and careful with any potentially destructive canine behaviors/deposits!
Yeah, I think this must be one of the places they take those jigsaw puzzle photos...!!
Bye-bye piggy!
Gotta love their parking lot mnemonics!
God Save The Queen!
The famous Empress Hotel.
And cool water fountain.
Love all that autumn ivy (or creeper, or whatever it is)!
And check out the two crazy, leaning "weeping sequoias" at the entrance! These two trees nearly parallel the ground!
Billy and a couple orcas.
Go abstract - go crazy! Weeeeee!! (it would be too easy to guess what these were if the photo was right side up...!)
And some more crazy...! I LOVE these lights!! Just hanging in a little cafe/coffee bar. Super awesome!
Victoria is the capitol of British Columbia - and has the magnificent Parliament buildings to prove it!
After a wonderful (and wonderfully "cheap!") dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory (yup, not just in the US!), it was time (or actually past time - would mean a late night!) to get back to the terminal and ride back. To our horror, our ticket coming over was only one way! You got it - another $77 to get back!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow. Ouch!! I'm glad we went, but those price tags mean that will be the last time, no matter what. We felt completely ripped-off. Should've paid more attention, but we made the mistake of assuming the ticket would be round-trip like in the US. Ooops!
Look past our truck in this photo. See all those big rigs?? That big white thing behind us is a semi. Yup, we were right in there with the big boys!
Poor Ouray. What a long day this was for him (and for us). And the puppies couldn't get out of the truck and walk around during the ferry rides like we could. Again, I'm glad we did this trip, but we were all bone tired by the time we got back to our RV (I think we were about an hour away from the terminal, and the ferry ride was 1 1/2 hrs).
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